The present invention relates to a deck forming supporting system for supporting sectional floor forms between girders, for example concrete bridge girders, on top of which floor forms cementitious material is poured to form a concrete floor. The present invention has been found to be particularly useful in the deck form support art for making bridges, especially as the device for supporting horizontally disposed forming members laterally placed between the bridge girders through the use of shoring brackets, and hence will be discussed with particular reference thereto.
In the construction of reinforced concrete bridges, a concrete deck is formed integrally with a set of longitudinally disposed bridge girders, usually made of concrete. The deck is layed by pouring concrete on reinforcing rods onto forms which are placed between adjacent bridge girders. The forms have to be placed so that the deck is integrally connected to the girders and has a substantially uniform thickness throughout its length. Thus it is necessary to securely and accurately position the forms. The longitudinally disposed bridge girders are usually "I" beams having lower inclined or slanted surfaces or lower squared off surfaces.
Several types of deck form supporting devices and methods have been known and used before, and typical examples thereof in the form supporting art are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,879, issued Apr. 7, 1970 to James K. Strickland, U.S. Pat. No. 3,626,648 issued Dec. 14, 1971 to Joe W. Beckham, U.S. Pat. No. 3,047,931 issued Apr. 21, 1961 to J. L. Boettner, U.S. Pat. No. 3,239,188 issued Mar. 11, 1964 to Peter Eric Gostling, U.S. Pat. No. 949,093 issued Feb. 15, 1910 to George H. Sherwood, U.S. Pat. No. 642,972 issued Feb. 6, 1900 to Charles Frolich, U.S. Pat. No. 2,215,972 issued Sept. 24, 1940 to Henry Mueller et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,041,311 issued May 19, 1936 to Charles H. Walker, U.S. Pat. No. 2,122,276 issued June 28, 1938 to George B. Bosco, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,234,335 issued Mar. 11, 1941 to Hubert H. Ecterling.
Most of the prior art approaches use some type of hanging system wherein the forms are supported by means of hardware placed over the girder and which extend down through the wooden form supports. For example the Mueller and Boxcoe support devices, as shown particularly in their FIG. 2, were attached over the top of the girder were immersed in the concrete upon completion thereby losing a substantial amount of hardware, and were adapted only to steel "I" beams. The Walker support device as shown particularly in FIG. 1 was also attached over the top of the girder and was also adapted only to steel "I" beams.
Other prior art approaches use support systems which physically clamp to the lower portion of the basic support girders; a typical example of this type being the Ecterling device as shown particularly in FIG. 1. 1 and 3, constitutes a shoring bracket and jack of the same general type used in the present invention for supporting the struts of the forming support but where attached directly to the supporting bridge girders by drilling or special forming of the concrete bridge girders. The Boettner device as shown particularly in FIG. 1 also constitutes a shoring bracket and jackscrew of the same general type used in the present invention but shows no method of support of said jacks. The commercial undesirability of overhead systems such as Mueller, Bosco, and Walker was apparently appreciated, however in the Boettner device which was attached from below. The Gostling device as shown particularly in FIG. 1 also shows a jackscrew of the same type used in the present invention which supports the floor forms from below but does not use the same shoring bracket as the present invention and shows no method of support of said jackscrews.
The Frolich and Sherwood devices, as shown particularly in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively, show a forming support system which rests on the inclined surface at the bottom of the basic girder supports, the forming support system however being adjustable both in height and width only in a rather complex manner.
In contrast to the prior art which teaches support systems that have many problems such as requiring especially constructed concrete girders; ties, clamps, wedges, bolts, etc. that are lost in the concrete and cannot be recovered; and complex, hard to construct, adjust and dismantle lower support systems; the present invention utilizes a very simple, flexible and reliable design. The present invention in its preferred embodiment utilizes a wedge placed along the lower inclined surfaces of the basic girders connected in the horizontal and vertical directions by the use of an "L" shaped bracket to tubular extensions having jackscrew sections therein. In this manner it supports the struts of the forming support from below permitting ease of assembly and disassembly of the system and permitting recovery of all of the parts of the system supporting the section floor forms for reuse as a unit without even requiring disassembly and reassembly of the component parts of the system.
The present invention utilizes a shoring bracket at the end of the vertical supports of rigid construction which is easily operated because of its stability. Individual brackets may be selected to fit any size beam. Additionally, the horizontal and vertical jackscrews permit adjustability for both horizontal supports and spacing beween the supporting bridge girders independently to compensate for small misalignment in either supporting bridge girder. The vertical jackscrews permit easy adjustability to any height for deck level. Furthermore, the shape of the wedge is adaptable to be used on either side of the support girder.
Additionally, because the shape of the wedge can be varied, it can be used with steel beams as well as reinforced concrete beams.
Finally, because the invention uses the wedge to convert vertical force vectors into horizontal force vectors, the invention does not require special cement castings for the bridge girders, drilling into the concrete, or inserts into the deck.